'My Hero Academia' Teases Shigaraki's Amnesia

My Hero Academia's latest arc in the manga has seen more of a focus on Shigaraki as he is trying [...]

By Nick Valdez

My Hero Academia's latest arc in the manga has seen more of a focus on Shigaraki as he is trying to re-build the League of Villains following the events of the last few arcs. They are appropriately broken and downtrodden, but Shigaraki has been trying his best to properly claim his place as All For One's successor. This has lead to his biggest challenge yet in trying to subdue the powerful Gigantomachia, but there's an even greater challenge presented in the fact that he may actually not remember why he started on this villainous path in the first place.

As the latest chapter of the series digs more into Shigaraki's past, there's a tease that he's been struck with amnesia. This could very well be hinting at something even more tragic than fans realize.

Chapter 222 of the series sees Shigaraki talking with All For One's doctor and he mentions that he does not remember much about his life before meeting them. It's here that the truly horrific origin behind the hands he wears on his body is revealed. The doctor tells him that the hands are the only remaining remnants of his family, who, as Shigaraki gruesomely pictures, were all victims of his disintegration quirk. But Shigaraki can only see fragments of these events.

It's important to note that All For One is the one who tells him he murdered his family. Shigaraki has brief snippets of it, but the blanks were "filled" by All For One. It's clear that he was not "modified" in any way as All For One refuses to do so as the fragments of Shigaraki's memory should be enough to fuel his rage, and this is how All For One gets close.

If Shigaraki does have amnesia of his past before he met All For One, this ties into another pervasive theory that Midoriya had his original quirk stolen from him by the same doctor.

The crux of that theory is that Midoriya had his memories somehow removed, and while Midoriya could just be a random victim of All For One's experiments, Shigaraki was chosen specifically. There's a chance that All For One could have killed Shigaraki's family as a way to get to both Nana Shimura and All Might. Then he could have just as easily wiped Shigaraki's memories and bred the resulting self-hatred. This could make Shigaraki a tragic villain, but hopefully we'll see how this all plays out as the series continues.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

My Hero Academia will be returning for its fourth season later this October, and it's one of the most anticipated returns of the year. Season 3 left the series on quite a few cliffhangers, so fans will be there day one to see what comes next. The series will be releasing its second big movie later this year as well.

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